Ferguson goes on Ballack charm offensive

Wednesday 16 November 2005 21.01 EST
First published on Wednesday 16 November 2005 21.01 EST

Manchester United are trying to arrange for Michael Ballack to spend a day at Old Trafford as part of their charm offensive to sign him from Bayern Munich. The club have already put together a financial package that would make him the Premiership's highest-paid player, with an annual salary of £6m, and Sir Alex Ferguson's next move will be to inform the 29-year-old Germany international that he wants him to succeed Roy Keane as captain.

Ballack is free to speak to other clubs from January 1 but United used intermediaries to register their interest six months ago and they are so confident of finalising the free transfer for next summer that one club official declared recently that it was "almost a done deal". Real Madrid might have something to say about that and the greatest worry for United now is that they could be gazumped by the Spanish club.

Madrid are one of the few clubs with the financial muscle and celebrity status to steal a player from under United's nose and, though England's biggest club have received verbal assurances from the Ballack camp, they are streetwise enough to realise that they need to act quickly and formalise the deal. Ferguson is exploring the possibilities of bringing the midfielder to England to tour the club's training facilities and see the building work that is increasing the capacity of Old Trafford to 75,000.

"I just want to have the opportunity to listen to other offers," Ballack told Munich's Tz newspaper yesterday.

Amid fears that he is preparing a summer departure, Thierry Henry's Arsenal team-mates have begged him to commit his long-term future to the club. Henry, whose contract runs out at the end of next season, has refused to discuss a contract extension until the summer, forcing Arsène Wenger to backtrack from his initial insistence that the captain should sign before Christmas. Despite becoming the club's all-time top scorer and taking over the captaincy after the departure of Patrick Vieira to Juventus in summer, Henry is seeking guarantees about Arsenal's ability to compete for European and domestic success.

Should Henry continue to refuse to sign a new contract, Arsenal could be forced to let him go for a knock-down price next summer or risk him leaving for free a year later. Barcelona have made no secret of their interest in signing the striker, but José Antonio Reyes has urged the Frenchman to follow his example and extend his contract at Arsenal rather than move to La Liga.

"Thierry is a vitally important player for us and the entire team is encouraging him to sign with the club - not just me," he said. "When you sign a long deal like I did it's because you think there are good players at the club and because you think you can win titles. We're supporting him and we want him to continue at Arsenal but there's nothing we can do about it."